Evaluating North American Tallgrass Prairie Quality Using The Auchenorrhyncha Quality Index
type: CreativeWork
description: Auchenorrhyncha (i.e., leafhoppers, treehoppers, spittlebugs, and planthoppers) represent some most diverse groups of herbivorous insects in the tallgrass prairie, they have close associations with many native prairie grasses and forbs, and respond in predictable ways to changes in grassland degradation. These attributes make Auchenorrhyncha ideal candidates in the development of a habitat quality index to measure tallgrass prairie integrity. Chapter 1 provides a detailed introduction of ecological integrity, methods used in measuring tallgrass prairie integrity, and the usefulness of insects in assessing prairie integrity. Chapter 2 describes the development of the Auchenorrhyncha Quality Index (AQI), and examines how changes in robustness (vacuum and sweeping) and sensitivity (changes in time of year and prairie community) affected two versions of the AQI (with abundance [AQIw/N] and without abundance [AQIw/outN]). The AQI was computed by assigning each auchenorrhynchan species a Coefficient of Conservatism (CC) value, which ranged from 0 (habitat-generalist/tolerant to degradation) to 18 (prairie-dependent/intolerant to degradation). These CC values are averaged and combined with species richness producing the AQIw/outN or these values are summed and weighted with abundance and combined with species richness producing the AQIw/N. The robustness and sensitivity of both versions of the AQI were analyzed by collecting Auchenorrhyncha from 35 sites in 4 states (Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri) over 3 years (2004, 2005, and 2008) using a combination of sweeping and/or vacuuming from transects and/or 5x5m plots from wet-mesic, loess, glacial-drift, gravel hill prairies, and sand prairies. ANOVAs showed that both versions of the AQI were insensitive to changes in time of year and prairie community at the landscape level when sampling from four transects using a vacuum but both versions of the AQI exhibited variation on individual sites when vacuum or sweep sampl…
abstract: Auchenorrhyncha (i.e., leafhoppers, treehoppers, spittlebugs, and planthoppers) represent some most diverse groups of herbivorous insects in the tallgrass prairie, they have close associations with many native prairie grasses and forbs, and respond in predictable ways to changes in grassland degradation. These attributes make Auchenorrhyncha ideal candidates in the development of a habitat quality index to measure tallgrass prairie integrity. Chapter 1 provides a detailed introduction of ecological integrity, methods used in measuring tallgrass prairie integrity, and the usefulness of insects in assessing prairie integrity. Chapter 2 describes the development of the Auchenorrhyncha Quality Index (AQI), and examines how changes in robustness (vacuum and sweeping) and sensitivity (changes in time of year and prairie community) affected two versions of the AQI (with abundance [AQIw/N] and without abundance [AQIw/outN]). The AQI was computed by assigning each auchenorrhynchan species a Coefficient of Conservatism (CC) value, which ranged from 0 (habitat-generalist/tolerant to degradation) to 18 (prairie-dependent/intolerant to degradation). These CC values are averaged and combined with species richness producing the AQIw/outN or these values are summed and weighted with abundance and combined with species richness producing the AQIw/N. The robustness and sensitivity of both versions of the AQI were analyzed by collecting Auchenorrhyncha from 35 sites in 4 states (Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri) over 3 years (2004, 2005, and 2008) using a combination of sweeping and/or vacuuming from transects and/or 5x5m plots from wet-mesic, loess, glacial-drift, gravel hill prairies, and sand prairies. ANOVAs showed that both versions of the AQI were insensitive to changes in time of year and prairie community at the landscape level when sampling from four transects using a vacuum but both versions of the AQI exhibited variation on individual sites when vacuum or sweep sampl…
author: Wallner, Adam M.
language: en
keywords: Auchenorrhyncha, Habitat Quality Index, Tallgrass Prairie
date published: 2011-01-14T22:45:59Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:25:11Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/18316